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Policy & Advocacy

NCTM faces several major challenges but it’s most pressing, in my opinion, is membership.   Over the last decade, NCTM membership has been declining and the average age of a member is 50+ years.  The significance of the challenge of maintaining members and recruiting new members cannot be underestimated.  How NCTM addresses this issue may very well be the deciding factor if NCTM continues to exist. 

 

At first glance, the declining number of members, in particular new members, can be attributed to the plethora of free mathematics resources on the Internet.  What value does an NCTM membership add to a new teacher given the resources that one can find for free so easily?  NCTM journals were one of the most value-added parts of NCTM membership but the journals no longer have that value because of the Internet.  The journal must adapt.  It must have more multimedia resources (interviews with authors, powerpoint presentations, and video).  It cannot continue to be a print journal with pdf of articles. 

 

Moreover, NCTM has resisted the call and need to evaluate mathematics resources and due to this others like Ed Reports have entered that area.  Teachers now look to other places rather than NCTM for such.  To retain its leadership in mathematics education, NCTM must look for partnerships that will guide teachers on resource evaluation.  

 

Lastly, NCTM must  advocate for improved assessment methods that foster deep understanding over rote memorization in standardized testing to include performance-based assessments, project-based learning outcomes, and longitudinal data to measure student growth over time.

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